Long delay in disposing off mercy pleas by President or governor of persons convicted under anti-terror laws or similar statutes cannot be a ground for commutation of death sentence, the Supreme Court held on Friday.
The family members of the convicts, on the hand, held placards stating that "five people cannot be hanged for the death of one person".
The Apex court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice RM Lodha, Justice HL Dattu and Justice SJ Mukhopadyaya, while commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment, referred to its January 21, 2014 verdict which said that inordinate, unexplained or unreasonable delay in deciding mercy petition was dehumanizing to death row convict and was a ground for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment.
"When it comes to the Canadian matter, we have made clear that the allegations are extremely serious and they need to be taken seriously. We wanted to see the government of India cooperate with Canada in its investigation. Obviously, they have not chosen that path," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference.
Sharma had applied for the licence which has been granted after assessing threats and following due procedure, they said.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking abolition of the death penalty saying that the "right to life and liberty is not absolute" in the constitution.
The plea claimed that Singh was arrested from Rajasthan and brought to Delhi on December 17, 2012, and was not present in the city on December 16, when the crime took place.
The hearing in the open court assumes importance in view of the January 21 judgement of three-judge bench holding that inordinate and inexplicable delay by government in deciding mercy plea of death row convicts can be a ground for commuting their sentence.
The other members of the interim government will be finalised after consultations with various political parties, the press secretary added.
Moreover, the process to release those arrested between July 1 to August has started, and many have already been released, it added.
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the death sentence of Mohammed Shoeb Kasam Ghansar, a death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case.
President Pratibha Patil has commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence given to eight murder convicts in two separate cases.
A purported video of Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan rehearsing for a video message a day after the death of his father, one of the foremost Dalit leaders Bihar produced after Jagjivan Ram, has gone viral.
This period saw big stars of the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev fade into the sunset while it was witness to the birth of slew of young Indian cricketers that made their mark home and abroad.
In a move that could benefit Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney on Thursday asked President Pervez Musharraf to convert all death sentences in the country to life imprisonment. "This is an issue on which we have spoken several times during our meetings and an issue on which I have already sent several appeals," the former human rights minister said.
Udhayanidhi's 'untimely' elevation as deputy CM may be used against the party, for critics to argue that the DMK's 'first family's is not concerned about anything else but their clan's welfare. If packaged and delivered properly, some of the sting may stick at election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Three men who hijacked a Pakistan International Airline plane in 1998 and tried to fly it to India were among eight prisoners who were hanged on Thursday in different jails in Pakistan.
The petition has been filed by convict Mukesh Kumar whose mercy plea was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17.
Prisoners facing death row in Pakistan, including Indian national Sarabjit Singh, are likely to get a reprieve with the government "actively considering" a proposal to convert capital punishment into life imprisonment. "A summary prepared by the interior ministry is at an advanced stage and a final decision is expected within a few days," a source was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.
Carlos Sainz put Ferrari on pole position for the US Formula One Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, with Red Bull's double World champion Max Verstappen joining the Spaniard on the front row.
Irish President Michael D Higgins has intervened in the row over the inquiry into the death of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar due to pregnancy-related complications after being denied abortion, saying the probe must meet the needs of her family as also the state.
However, the Army, in a statement, said since Singh's cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot injury, no guard of honour or military funeral was provided, in accordance with the existing policy.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday states to furnish "within 48 hours" details of mercy petitions filed by death row convicts pending with respective Governors, failing which it warned that Home Secretaries of the states concerned would have to appear before it.
Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani drew nil salary from his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries for the fourth straight year in a row while his children earned a sitting fee and a commission for being on the board of India's most valuable company. Ambani, 67, had capped his annual remuneration at Rs 15 crore from financial year 2008-09 (April 2008 to March 2009) to 2019-20 (FY20); and since FY21, he opted to forego his salary, due to COVID-19 pandemic, until the company and all its businesses were fully back to their earnings potential.
Three persons were arrested in Gujarat's Surat city on Friday for allegedly threatening a businessman for uploading suspended Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nupur Sharma's photo on Instagram, the police said.
Dhubri is the worst-hit district, followed by Cachar and Darrang.
'There was a time when a movie star could win an election just by stepping into politics. That era is over.'
The BJP cannot afford to alienate the OBCs, who have explicitly voiced their opposition to the Maratha quota.
Reversing the burden of evidence means that the principle of innocent until proven guilty does not apply. It is exactly the opposite: Guilty as charged, until you can convince the judges of the contrary, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Ever since, he has remained Thiruvananthapuram preferred MP, winning four elections on the trot, including the closely fought battle with Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajeev Chandrasekhar in 2024. This could well be his swansong from the capital segment.
Pakistan hanged four convicts on Wedesnday, 59 executed since death penalty revival.
The apex court was also unhappy over the submission of the counsel for the Centre that the matter be adjourned.
Mumbai Indians' new skipper Hardik Pandya Sunday took the six-run defeat to Gujarat Titans in their IPL opener on the chin, saying it was "not an issue" as there are 13 matches to go.
Jail officials said that after the death warrants were issued, the convicts were asked when they would like to meet their respective families for the last time, but none of them has responded yet. They are scheduled to be hanged on February 1.
Labour union leader Shrirang Barge said the state government would have known Dharmadhikari has a massive following and that the event would have attracted several lakh people, so why were arrangements for water, shade etc, missing.
Special Trial Tribunal-3 Judge Sayeed Ahmed pronounced the verdict in presence of seven of the accused. One of the death row convict is on the run.
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
The cartoon depicted men wearing skull caps hanging by the noose. It had a tricolour and a drawing depicting the scene of a bomb blast in the background, with "Satyamev Jayate" written on its top right corner.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday permitted the mother of a Kerala woman, who is on death row in Yemen for killing a Yemeni national, to travel to the West Asian country to negotiate about blood money with the victim's family and save her daughter from the gallows.
His remarks came after the US said on Thursday that it supports Canada's efforts to investigate allegations of India's involvement in the killing of Nijjar, observing that no country can get any "special exemption" for such kind of activities.
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